David Santos Alonso massaged the clay flower pot as stinging smoke skulked from the wooden cooking area. Inside the kitchen, his wife Maria Lydia prepared tortillas on a comal over a brick fogon next to a pot of water. Cocuchas — tall clay jars crafed in the Michoacan town of Cocucho — rose from the concrete floor and opened into sensuous […]
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Saulo Moreno Hernandez is a 71 year old sagacious, self-effacing artist from Tlapujahua, in the state of Michoacan. One of his works is featured in the Americas Gallery of the British Museum in London. One of his early ‘calaveritas’, which are imaginative statues of skeletons depicted as alive and in various poses and garb, was bought by […]
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Martha López Luna gripped a fragment of hummingbird feather with tweezers and placed it delicately on her painting of the Isla de Janitzio rising over the lake. Pondering her arte plumaria — feather art — painting for a moment, she removed a small puff of raw umber feather from a jar and split the piece into tiny […]
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An endless number of approaches to familiar motifs show themselves throughout the town. A trogon, its cherry red neck gleaming against a body of emerald green, crawls up the side of a picture frame, followed by a chattering monkey. Mickey Mouse, decked out in a blue jacket and red trousers, offers a rose to a […]
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Morelia is the capital of Michoacan. The architecture is colonial style and the momentum of civic intent is to promote and preserve this inheritance. The city is organized around a large central square with fountains, trees, a bandstand, and a spectacularly maintained cathedral. There is also a large city park and a zoo. Published or […]
Continue Reading“If you want to form an idea of our journey, take a map of Mexico and you will see that Michoacán is one of the most beautiful and fertile regions of the world, crossed by hills and lavish valleys, its prairies watered by several streams and its climate temperate and healthful.” — Marquise Calderón de […]
Continue ReadingIf Michoacan is “the soul of Mexico,” as it has often been called, then its food is Mexico’s soul food, for few other places in the country can claim such a profound and long-lasting indigenous influence on their regional cuisine. This western state, part of the Bajio region located north and west of Mexico City, […]
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Among the fertile volcanoes of Michoacan Lumholtz came across the Purepecha people, who were called Tarascan by the Spanish. Enemies of the Aztecs, the Tarascans flourished from 1100 A.D. to 1530 A.D. Their origins are still a puzzle, along with their stirrup-shaped, long-necked bottles and round temples called Yacatas. The center of the Tarascan Empire […]
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Clickable interactive map of Michoacán, Mexico: Morelia, Uruapan, Patzcuaro, Zitacuaro, Playa Azul, Zamora, Paricutin volcano The state of Michoacán is in the Central Pacific region, along with the states of Jalisco, Nayarit and Colima. Michoacán is one of the most diverse states in Mexico in terms of its people, landscapes and economy. The state of […]
Continue ReadingMap courtesy of Lonely Planet Travel Books. Their Guide to Mexico is the best Mexico travel book on the market. Available for immediate shipping at Amazon.com Published or Updated on: April 1, 2001
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